
Story Highlights:
- Prelimb is an app that changes the way gardens are grown
- Exclusive Video – How it works
- The making of Prelimb
DIY Imagine, Plan, Grow
Have you ever wanted to grow a garden, but had a hard time visualizing how it would all plan out? It’s your lucky day.
Prelimb is an IOS application used through the iPad to virtually grow plants in any outdoor space. The motto: know before you grow. While it is used mostly by homeowners, it can technically be utilized by anyone. You don’t have to be a plant expert to create your dream garden!
The app contains an extensive plant library along with specialized sun and water requirements.

Cool right?!
Check out this video on how it works:
Reasons why Prelimb is awesome:
- You can easily improve your gardening skills through the app – learn about plant selection and spacing.
- Not only is it an awesome app, its sustainable too. Prelimb has a drought tolerant focus, allowing you to choose from a diverse library filled with beautiful plants that don’t need a ton of watering or work.
- What sets Prelimb apart from other gardening apps is that it uses innovative augmented reality technology, aka you see in 3D instead of 2D.
Sprouting From The Ground Up:
Prelimb started out as an idea for David’s senior project as a landscape architecture major. He could see the difficulty in imagining what plants will look like five or ten years in the future, and how difficult it is to know what plants will work in what spaces.
“I noticed a good amount of clients being unsatisfied with landscape architects – not due to their craft, but because people always want ‘instant gratification.’ They wanted plants to look like they do in all the pretty pictures. And after a project is installed, clients tend to be unhappy with the results and put more and more plants in to fill the space. After all that time and money is spent, and the space is over-grown years later, they’ll tend to blame the landscape architect. But what if they could experience the designer’s vision from step one? Then they could actually see in the eyes of the designer. That’s where Prelimb comes in,” Founder David Harms explains.
Landscape Architecture faculty Joseph Dunstan and Dave Watts were both influential in the making of the application.
“Not only did he learn from us, but we learned from him as well. Everyone expanded their horizons. David really embraced technology and he successfully created a new benchmark within the department,” Assistant Professor of Landscape Architecture David Watts said.
Together, Dunstan and Watts taught sections of a fifth year capstone series, where David spent nine months developing Prelimb.
“He had a great concept. He could see how augmented reality applies to landscape architecture and made that jump. David had to do the software side of Prelimb by himself. He put his nose to the grindstone and worked hard every single day,” Lecturer of Landscape Architecture Joseph Dunstan said.
Pelimb: The Journey to Becoming a Team
David is the core development manager and CEO of the startup.
Growing up, David was fascinated with computers and would often build & rebuild computers for fun. In High School, he worked in Mt. Lassen National Park and achieved the status of ‘Eagle Scout’ in the Boy Scouts of America, both of which motivated him to fuse his interest in nature & technical systems and study landscape architecture.
Learning computer software programs like C sharp, JavaScript and also how to 3D model, David managed to develop the app by himself as a one man team two years ago. But developing an app is one thing- and structuring a business around it is another.
After an Intro to Entrepreneurship class at Cal Poly with Dr. John York, David formed a team. They have been working together for ten months and include David, Ashlyn Aiu, Grant Sukchindasathien, Garrett Fry, and more recently, Monica Alderette.
“If it weren’t for my team comprised of Cal Poly students & alumni, a business strategy guru, and various mentors – who have expertise ranging from business, to online marketing, to graphic design – Prelimb as a business wouldn’t look anything like it does today.” David explains. “Any of our market research? That’s Garrett hard at work. The experience you have interacting with the application? That’s Ashlyn doing her thing. Marketing strategy – that’s Grant grinding away. We collectively started this journey together. When we applied for the SLO HotHouse Accelerator program over summer, Prelimb shifted from a Senior Project prototype to a full-fledged business model,” Harms said.

Present and Future for Prelimb
Prelimb is currently being used by beta users- people who are testing out the app so the team can work out all the kinks and receive feedback.
Right now, Prelimb is working on getting the app ready for release in a few weeks. It will be available for iPads on March 25th, and the iPhone and Android releases will be available later this year.
They are also on their way to becoming incorporated and building a plant store within the app. They will continuously add plants and other content to the library as well.
Exciting times are ahead for this startup! Visit their Facebook page for updates and other cool stuff.
Tags: David Harms, LA, landscape architecture, Cal Poly Landscape Architecture, SLO plants, SLO gardens, gardens, augmented reality, startups, HotHouse, Morro Street, Prelimb, Joseph Dunstan, Dave Watts, John York, Ashlyn Aiu, Grant Sukchindasathien, Garrett Fry, Wallace Group, beta users, app, virtual garden